Video games: ‘The new battleground for big brands’

The physical launch of  Tesla’s cybertruck and roadster models in China was preceded by their virtual launch in the  Game for Peace video game, which enables players to “experience driving the cars in the virtual world of Game for Peace before the cars are physically available in the market”.

Speaking at the session, Precursor to the Metaverse? Best Practices for In-Game Trademark Licensing, at the  International Trademark Association’s (INTA’s) annual meeting 2023, Joey Zhou—senior business and brand manager for Game for Peace (which is owned by tech firm  Tencent)—outlines this and many other exciting developments to emerge.

Video games, he explains, provide “so many possibilities to integrate trademarks” as he goes on to detail several such partnerships that he has overseen in his work at the developer of one of China's most popular video games.

From automotive partnerships to a Valentine’s Day promotion with  Yves St Laurent, which involved a customised ‘real-world’ gift box being made available for players to purchase, the possibilities are endless.

Indeed, as  Patrick Low—principal IP counsel at Tencent in Singapore and moderator of the session—explains, this partnership provides a “case study of how in-game collaboration can extend beyond the game environment to out-of-game opportunities”.

The panel discussion focused on trademark licensing in video games—or, as Low puts it, the “process where trademark owners grant developers the right to use their trademarks within the gaming environment in return for a royalty or licensing fee”.

Miley Chen, senior marketing manager at  PUBG Mobile in China (also part of Tencent), describes how her game—a free-to-play online multiplayer battle royale game with 15 million daily users has collaborated with celebrities, automotive brands and many more to “provide brands with the opportunity to reach out to a wide demographic with eclectic taste”.

She says that video games are especially good avenues for brands to reach their consumers, because customers “are spending their enjoyment time” in the game, and “if brands can align themselves with that joy” by using the much more “immersive experience” of video games, it can be extremely effective.

Dangerous ground

While video games can provide powerful avenues for brands, they are not without dangers, explains  Pin-Ping Oh, partner at Bird & Bird in Singapore. One of those challenges lies in the “expectation on the part of the users that they will be able to co-create with the brands…not just buy something ready-made”.

This raises questions about the ownership of these resultant creations, but also the potential threat of diluting the brand image. “Brands need to be ready to relinquish some control,” she says, while being careful to protect themselves. She suggests brands can “establish brand guidelines [and] possibly hardwire them into the system with developers” to prevent unwanted use”.

As for trademark protection, it’s not as simple as it might seem. “The question is ‘if I’m a trader who has registered a mark for real-world goods, am I protected for virtual goods as well?’”, she says.

Unfortunately, the answer is “not necessarily”, Oh says, pointing to IP offices such as the   Korean Intellectual Property Office, which has released guidelines confirming that “virtual goods will be deemed dissimilar to their real-world counterparts until a court precedent establishes otherwise”.

She suggests that brands consider getting into the virtual space to prepare, by registering trademarks covering virtual goods and NFTs, but cautions that “marks are vulnerable to non-use attacks” if brands don’t use them within a certain time frame—typically three to five years.

Harmonious licensing

So what’s the best approach to collaborations between brands and video games? For Chen, the key is “empathy with the help of creativity” leading to a relationship built on respect for each other’s interests.

Oh agrees this is key, and advises brands to “look into the details of what’s going to be done with their brands” in any such partnership, to avoid situations in which the promotional benefit of the partnership is threatened by unwanted associations for the brand.

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